Share via

The Sultanate of Brunei will tomorrow become the first country in South East
Asia to add Islamic law — Sharia — to its national penal code, as religious
conservatism takes deeper root across the region.

The controversial move, which could mean that non-Muslim residents of Brunei
are subjected to trial by Islamic courts, will ultimately add the
punishments of flogging, amputation and death by stoning to the country’s
legal system.

So controversial is the change that last month residents of Brunei — backed by
objections from the human rights office of the United Nations —used social
media to mount an exceptional rare cry